Does anyone own a fish and chip van???

[Kitsmummy]

I'm expecting zero responses here btw as it's probably the least mumsnetty job out there 🤣, but I think there is a real gap in the market around here for it and just wondering if anyone does have one and how it all works??

I don’t but a good friend of my dad used to. They had a Set pitch on different estates and they would go to these pitches at the same time/same day every week so they didn’t drive around like an ice cream van. They had an extension on their house with a full industrial kitchen which they would prepare all the food in during the day. They had to have inspections of the kitchen by food hygiene and of the van. The van itself was quite big but they turned their back garden into a drive so the van stayed there when not in use. They did it for years and years. I have seen some vans outside pubs etc at kick out time but I’m not sure if they have a permit for that or just turn up. They gave it up a few years ago as they were getting older and competition was getting a bit too fierce. I think overall even though it was a van it was treated like a mini cafe/restaurant and things like
Health and safety were taken very seriously. They paid a lot to
Keep the upkeep on the van as if the van didn’t work then they had no back up but it took up a lot of their time as they would
Be in the kitchen in the day then out on the van at night.

They are quite common in the area I am in, as described by @HoHoHomeTimeFinally they have set schedules of where they park when.

We used to have one with us. Was really popular but I think the likes of just eat have damaged the trade, a lot of the chip shops around here offering delivery now so you don’t have to wait for it to show up.

We used to have one come to our estate every Thursday evening. It lasted about 2 months until the novelty wore off, customs declined and it folded.

The problem (for me) was that we could only use it if we happened to want fish and chips at a precise time, which we often didn’t. It didn’t have the ease of just grabbing something from the chippy on the way home. Plus serving took a long time (during which you were staining in the cold rather than a warm chippy) and prices were high.

Not a van but my family had fish and chip shops. There is a lot of hidden work, from chipping the potatoes onwards. Most places have massive chippers as it's not something you can do manually. Then you need huge storage bins for the chipped potatoes, as they need to be kept in water or they discolour, as well as large sinks as you need to take the eyes out or what the chipper missed.

It's unlikely uou could do the prep in a domestic kitchen, the storage for the potatoes alone is quite substantial. Then you need huge fridges for the rest of the food. Fish, chicken, pizza, sausage or whatever you're serving. And then on top of this there is other prep, such as making the batter etc, through to cleaning the fryers.

You also need storage for other things you may wish to sell, ie soft drinks or whatever.

So as a pp said, you'd need to do the prep work before effectively going out to sell.

For my family the day started at the latest by 10 am. Then the shop opened late afternoon, and then finish was 11 pm, after which was clean up.

It can be very profitable, but it's a lot of work with long days. You'd need a fair chunk of money behind you to get yourself set up.

They're quite successful near me but we're in a rural area not covered by Just Eat/deliveroo etc. They seem to have a schedule of villages they go around through the week.

Not us, but the people we bought our house from did.

They had a massive shed in the garden with freezers to store fish etc and there’s also an electric point on the front of the house that they used for the van. Obviously you’d need a driveway big enough for the van, too.

No idea how it worked as a business but it was a great mid-week treat to get sausage and chips from the van on the way home from after school / nursery (we walked and it was on the estate close to home)

A friend of mine has one which she tours around the festival circuit in the summer months and food markets during the winter. Tons of hard manual work over the weekends and loads of admin during the week.